Could telemedicine generate.med as top-level domain name?

The article presents a consideration of top-level domain names and possibility that telemedicine generates top-level domain name for medicine itself. Using the United States of America domain, the article has tried to explain all the most important facts about top-level domain names. It has also presents a current situation about responsibility in this sector and the mode to adopt new top-level domains

Trademark Vigilance in the Twenty-First Century: An Update

The trademark laws impose a duty upon brand owners to be vigilant in policing their marks, lest they be subject to the defense of laches, a reduced scope of protection, or even death by genericide. Before the millennium, it was relatively manageable for brand owners to police the retail marketplace for infringements and counterfeits. The Internet changed everything. In ways unforeseen, the Internet has unleashed a tremendously damaging cataclysm upon brands—online counterfeiting. It has created a virtual pipeline directly from factories in China to the American consumer shopping from home or work. The very online platforms that make Internet shopping so convenient, and that have enabled brands to expand their sales, have exposed buyers to unwittingly purchasing fake goods which can jeopardize their health and safety as well as brand reputation. This Article updates a 1999 panel discussion titled Trademark Vigilance in the Twenty-First Century, held at Fordham Law School, and explains all the ways in which vigilance has changed since the Internet has become an inescapable feature of everyday life. It provides trademark owners with a road map for monitoring brand abuse online and solutions for taking action against infringers, counterfeiters and others who threaten to undermine brand value

The Domain Name Registration .BIZness: Are We Being Pulled over on the Information Super Highway

This paper critically analyzes the de facto control over the Domain Name System currently administered by the not-for-profit organization, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ( ICANN ). Specifically, the author addresses the concerns of how ICANN fails to lead in the direction of appropriate Internet governance, and how it directs the Domain Name Registration ( DNR ) industry to focus more upon economics, rather than engaging in legitimate issues surrounding trademark disputes created by the DNR

Who Owns the Customer? The Emerging Law of Commercial Transactions in Electronic Customer Data

The Information Revolution is changing the way commerce acted and value is defined within transactions. Before the Internet and e-business took center stage, electronic commerce meant electronic data interchange, just-in-time inventory systems, supply chain automation, and corporate reengineering. But the rise of the Internet as a communications medium has coincided with a shift in management focus, from merely trying to improve the efficiency of business logistics systems to a more holistic perspective on improving customer relationships. Intangible assets such as intellectual property rights, human capital in the form of employee knowledge, and established relationships with customers and suppliers are playing an increasingly important role in both old economy and new economy businesses. Computer databases are one form of intangible asset that have played an important role in business for decades. The use of customer databases is key to any strategy to build better relationships through electronic commerce. In recent years, there have been dramatic advances in the technology associated with building databases and analyzing the data they contain for competitive advantage. While data mining and customer profiling both antedate the rise of commercial Internet sites by many years, their use in business has become more visible and more controversial in recent years due to the ability of commercial Internet sites to collect new forms and greater quantities of customer data than was possible only a few years ago. As a result of their growing size and sophistication, and because of the pivotal role they play in managing business relationships, customer databases are becoming an ever more valuable asset for both bricks and mortar and Internet businesses. The commercial law governing business-to-business transactions in customer databases has not kept up with the rapid pace of developments in business practice. Many interests in databases are not recognized as property rights under copyright or other intellectual property laws. Even a statute as newly-minted as the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA), which was finalized by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in July 1999, is silent on many important issues raised by business transactions in data. In addition, the question of what rights, if any, individuals have to control the use of personally identifiable data has become very controversial in recent years as the ability to collect and analyze personal data continues to outstrip laws governing the privacy rights of individuals whose personal data is stored in databases. Uncertainty also results where there is no express agreement among interested parties governing the collection and use of the data, or where one of the parties with an interest in the data seeks to change the rights of interested parties unilaterally by modifying an existing agreement or practice. The number of parties claiming commercial interests in the same data is growing as electronic commerce marketing strategies become more interdependent and interconnected. With the trend towards coopetition —including vertical hubs, partnerships, strategic alliances, and other licensing arrangements—it may be difficult for transacting parties to determine whether they have obtained good title to database assets or are taking them subject to competing claims of ownership or claims in infringement of the rights of third parties. These uncertainties are compounded by the rapid globalization of electronic commerce and the inconsistent legal standards applied in different jurisdictions. For example, current U.S. law governing commercial use of customer data may be incomplete and highly uncertain with regard to many issues raised by new applications for customer databases. European Union (EU) law, by contrast, is often quite unambiguous in simply prohibiting or sharply curtailing a wide range of business practices U.S. firms consider unproblematic. Global transactions often are subject to these and other potentially conflicting bodies of law, creating additional legal risks with respect to database assets. This Article explores the new business models and technological advances driving the growing business interest in customer databases and the uncertain and fragmentary state of the law applicable to these practices and technologies. The Article also discusses practical strategies businesses should consider to minimize the risks they face from collecting and using customer data for competitive advantage in electronic commerce markets. In recent years and months, many businesses have become involved in disputes with regulators, competitors, and customers as a result of changing conditions for the collection and use of customer data. As context for the discussion of law and technology that follows, this Article summarizes seven case studies involving actual or potential conflicting claims in customer data. These cases illustrate the variety and significance of the legal issues being created by the ongoing shifts in practice and technology. Next, the Article provides an overview of the evolving business technologies fueling the explosive growth in the development and exploitation of customer databases. Computer networking, data capture opportunities, and data storage and analysis technologies are expanding rapidly. The pace of technological change is far exceeding the ability of the lawmakers to keep up, and indeed, some new technologies threaten to impair or even eliminate the practical ability to enforce legal rights in data. This Article then summarizes the current U.S. legal framework for protection of database assets and the divergent EU data protection framework, respectively. Finally, the Article concludes with analysis and practical suggestions for managing risks in commercial transactions in data. Given the uncertainty in the law regarding new commercial applications for customer data, contract provisions will often assume paramount importance in establishing the parties\u27 intentions regarding the value being created in new databases. However, the complexity of Internet commerce technologies and the interdependence of Internet businesses and their marketing strategies, combined with the unsettling impact bankruptcy law could have on such virtual alliances, will limit the certainty any contract provisions can provide. Accordingly, businesses should carefully evaluate legal risks arising from significant transactions involving data and take practical as well as legal measures to avoid or reduce the risks created in the new electronic commerce environment

What the Web Has Wrought

In 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee proposed the development of ‘a large hypertext database with typed links’, which eventually became The World Wide Web. It was rightly heralded at the time as a significant development and a boon for one-and-all as the digital age flourished both in terms of universal accessibility and affordability. The general anticipation was that this could herald an era of universal friendship and knowledge-sharing, ushering in global cooperation and mutual regard. In November 2019, marking 30 years of the Web, Berners-Lee lamented that its initial promise was being largely undermined, and that we were in danger of heading towards a ‘digital dystopia’: What happened

Wrong Turn in Cyberspace: Using ICANN to Route Around the APA and the Constitution

The Internet relies on an underlying centralized hierarchy built into the domain name system (DNS) to control the routing for the vast majority of Internet traffic. At its heart is a single data file, known as the root. Control of the root provides singular power in cyberspace. This Article first describes how the United States government found itself in control of the root. It then describes how, in an attempt to meet concerns that the United States could so dominate an Internet chokepoint, the U. S. Department of Commerce (DoC) summoned into being the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a formally private nonprofit California corporation. DoC then signed contracts with ICANN in order to clothe it with most of the U. S. government\u27s power over the DNS, and convinced other parties to recognize ICANN\u27s authority. ICANN then took regulatory actions that the U. S. Department of Commerce was unable or unwilling to make itself, including the imposition on all registrants of Internet addresses of an idiosyncratic set of arbitration rules and procedures that benefit third-party trademark holders. Professor Froomkin then argues that the use of ICANN to regulate in the stead of an executive agency violates fundamental values and policies designed to ensure democratic control over the use of government power, and sets a precedent that risks being expanded into other regulatory activities. He argues that DoC\u27s use of ICANN to make rules either violates the APA\u27s requirement for notice and comment in rulemaking and judicial review, or it violates the Constitution\u27s nondelegation doctrine. Professor Froomkin reviews possible alternatives to ICANN, and ultimately proposes a decentralized structure in which the namespace of the DNS is spread out over a transnational group of policy partners with DoC

Unravelling Ariadne’s Thread: Exploring the Threats of Decentralised DNS

The current landscape of the core Internet technologies shows considerable centralisation with the big tech companies controlling the vast majority of traffic and services. This situation has sparked a wide range of decentralisation initiatives with blockchain technology being among the most prominent and successful innovations. At the same time, over the past years there have been considerable attempts to address the security and privacy issues affecting the Domain Name System (DNS). To this end, it is claimed that Blockchain-based DNS may solve many of the limitations of traditional DNS. However, such an alternative comes with its own security concerns and issues, as any introduction and adoption of a new technology typically does - let alone a disruptive one. In this work we present the emerging threat landscape of blockchain-based DNS and we empirically validate the threats with real-world data. Specifically, we explore a part of the blockchain DNS ecosystem in terms of the browser extensions using such technologies, the chain itself (Namecoin and Emercoin), the domains, and users who have been registered in these platforms. Our findings reveal several potential domain extortion attempts and possible phishing schemes. Finally, we suggest countermeasures to address the identified threats, and we identify emerging research themes